Three may keep a Secret, if Two of them are Dead
by Ellisama
Summary: Naruto, Sasuke and Kyuubi, what do they have in common?  We do it to protect ourselves or others, because we promised or just to feel safe. But we always have a reason, even if we don't know it ourselves.  Gen fic, introspection


_**Three Secrets, Untold**_

Hey guys! Here are three drabbles I wrote a long long time ago. No pairings here, just introspection. If you enjoy, then help me conquer my author's block by suggesting stuff for me to write!

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><p>Humans have secrets. Shinobi have secrets. Children have secrets. The world is made of it. Because sometimes, even without reason, we keep things for ourselves. We do it to protect ourselves or others, because we promised or just to feel safe. But it always has a reason, even if we don't know it ourselves. These our ours.<p>

_**Every Jinchuuriki has Insomnia**_

"Good night!" He said with a happy fox-like smile on his face as he waved his friends goodbye.

"Sweet dreams, Naruto!" Said Sakura, as she walked around the corner, just out of sight to see her friend stiff up a little. After a second, he relaxed again and walked to his apartment, his smile now gone.

"Sweet dreams... I wish I could..." He whispered silently to himself. "Such a long time ago since I had one."

When he finally arrived at his apartment, he threw himself at his bed. Closing his eyes, he imagined he was a sleep. He pretended to dream. But it wouldn't come. No sleep. No dreams. No unconsciousness bliss. No more.

He had been insomniac since the first time he had been in contact with the Kyuubi, after Jiraiya had thrown him of the cliff. First, he just thought he was to hyper active to sleep, like he had done in the past. But after 2 weeks of no sleep, no dreams, yet no real fatigue, he started to question it. And then, after he had fought Gaara, they had talked.

Gaara had told him he was insomniac. After looking up the word in the dictionary, Naruto put one and one together, and concluded they both had insomnia. Gaara had been surprised when he told it him afterwards, but had concluded it might have been a Jinchuuriki thing.

"Oh, who am I fooling" He said, and stopped pretending. He left his bed and head to the bathroom. There, in the mirror, he could now clearly see the small bags under his eyes he had been hiding under a henge. "I'm fooling myself and the world" His eyes flickered red for a second, before returning to their original blue. He turned away from the mirror.

Nights could be very boring. He couldn't train, because he was supposed to sleep. He couldn't go and talk to somebody, because they were asleep. The only thing he could do was stay hidden, and pretend to be asleep for the world.

Though Naruto didn't hate nights. Sure, they were boring, but they were beautiful. He positioned himself in chair and picked up his book. He had never been the best reader, so reading a book was still quite hard for him, but he was making progress. So he read every night. He read about the stars, he read about the history of the nations. He even read a book about demons once.

In Suna, a red-headed boy closed another book on his own, while another girl with long blond hair guarded her Raikage all night, while his brother was writing down some new lyrics. They worked 24/7, they learned and did more than anybody else.

But they never slept. Naruto didn't feel tired, never felt the sleep take him away. But he could feel something else: The jealousy.

So when Sakura picked him up next morning, and asked him if he had slept well, he didn't say a word, just smiled. While deep inside, he cursed her for asking him. He was jealous of Shikamaru when he saw him sleeping, and he envied Tsunade when they found her asleep on her desk.

They never knew how much he just wanted to sleep. Jinchuuriki don't sleep, He now knew, but they never would know.

**Because they didn't want anybody to know just how big the difference between a human and a Jinchuuriki was.**

_**-0-**_

_**Sasuke had a different ambition in his childhood**_

"Be quiet mother." Hissed Uchiha Itachi weakly "I don't want to wake Sasuke"

His mother however had different plans. "Be quiet, Itachi? You're more injured than I've ever seen your father, and that says something, and you want me to be quiet?" While she sounded angry, the tears in her eyes and the look on her face clearly showed how she really felt.

She hated it when her son came back like this: bruised, beaten and completely broken. He was still a child, for kami's sake, her little baby. But the worst part was, it was always her who was crying while he comforted her in the middle of the night. Like he was the parent, not she. She often wondered how old Itachi was in his mind, or just how scared that place was.

She knew Itachi was strong, she knew he was a genius. She knew he would never cease to amaze her. Being his mother made miracles a daily occurrence, something she would rather lose than keep, though. She knew all those things and more, but that didn't mean she liked it.

But right now, seeing him in his weakened state, she didn't see the ANBU captain, she saw her little 13-year-old. Who in her eyes needed her help, which she couldn't give. She felt so helpless, and... weak, something she hated.

However, she also failed to see her other, 6-year-old son, who had been awake the entire night, waiting for his older brother. She didn't see him peeking into the room, seeing his brother just the same way she did. She failed to notice his tears, the same tears she was shedding right now. She also wouldn't hear him running back to his room, getting back into bed and cry in the pillow till daybreak. In a way, Uchiha Mikoto was blind and deaf, even with her Sharingan.

However, Sasuke did see his brother, and he did see his mother that evening. He realized something not even his mother did: They couldn't help Itachi. And with that revelation came another, something even his brother hadn't realized: There were ways they could help him, and crying wasn't one of them.

In his own way, little Uchiha Sasuke was a genius, for he could see the simplest things in life and recognize them for what they could become without anyone teaching him to do so. If he would just use his mind without letting his emotions rule it, he could do see those things, something not even the all mighty sharingan could, something not even his father, his brother or his mother could.

So after controlling his own emotions, which took him most of the night, he realized the last part of his revelation: A medic nin could help his brother. He could become a medic nin, therefore he could help his brother. Living with his father for his entire life taught him he could never be stronger than Itachi. However, living with Itachi taught him he should never give up on something he wanted. And he hated feeling this weak, something living with his mother taught him.

"Sasuke, what do you want to be when you grow up?" His mother asked him a few days after 'that' night. His brother had been fully healed by a medic nin, and Sasuke had been watching the entire process in awe. He had even asked the woman if she could teach him how to do it. She'd been visibly shocked at first, but after he explained her why, she had that funny look on her face he often saw on his mother's when she looked at his brother. Later, he would recognize it as pride and affection, when the same woman would look at his blond teammate. But at the time, he just pouted slightly, thinking the woman didn't take him serious. However, she did, and promised him to his surprise she would teach him as soon as she came back to the village. He didn't learn her name till he asked his mother a few seconds ago when 'the nice woman who healed aniki' would come back.

However, he didn't answer his mother's question, and his mother would never know why he was so interested in lady Tsunade, and why the woman told her to take good care of both of her sons before she left. But in his mind, he did: _'I want to be a medic nin'_

The next time he would however remember this ambition was almost 10 years later, when he was injured pretty badly, but still burying his brother, thinking: _'If I would've become a medic nin back then, would've I be able to stop this from happening?'_

**But as long as he wouldn't be able to answer that question, it would always remain a secret.**

**-0-**

_**The Kyuubi likes ramen**_

"Ano, Naruto-kun?" The shy heiress asked him while he was devouring his ramen next to her at Ichiraku's. "May I ask you something?"

"Of course Hinata-chan" He said, looking up from his ramen, facing his friends. It was their weekly ramen lunch, in which everyone of Konoha 11 that was in the village would eat together. Today, it was just him, Hinata, Kiba, Neji and Sakura. "What is it?"

"Well, it's something we have been meaning to ask you for some time." Sakura continued "Why do you like ramen this much. I mean, yes, It's tasteful, but it's not that great. Especially considering you eat this every day."

Naruto flinched for a split second, before grinning happily. "Because it's awesome!"

The rest of the group now had their attention on him. They didn't really buy it, not even from Naruto. "Really?" Kiba asked "Not some special reason?"

Naruto didn't answer because he was again devouring his ramen. His friends gave up.

Because of this, they didn't notice it when he spaced off. Well, actually he was very focused, because it still took a lot out of him to delve so deep inside of him. And there he was, at the giant sewer that was in his stomach. _"Hey Kyuubi!"_ He called out the giant demon.

**"What is it kid?"**He heard the ancient fox approach him in his cage. **"Brought some stuff?"**

_"Of course!"_He replied happily, and pulled a bowl of Ramen the size of a car behind his back. (all hail the power of imagination!) He shoved it in the cage sat down with a bowl of his own. _"Here you go."_

_**"Itakidamasu!"**_And they started eating their ramen.

After a long slurping induced silence, naruto spoke. _"You know what Sakura asked me today?"_

_"_**What?"**

_"Why I like ramen, and why I eat it every day."_

The kyuubi raised an eyebrow, which would look really creepy if you weren't used to it. Luckily Naruto was. _**"**_**What did you say?"**

_"I said: "Because it's awesome!"_Naruto replied. _"But they didn't really buy it."_

**"You're not going to tell them, are you?"**Kyuubi said a bit worried. "**I mean, I don't think 'your precious people' would understand if you told them we ate together every time you eat ramen."**

_"No, of course not."_Naruto shrugged, pulling a deck of cards from… well actually it just appeared out of the nowhere. (IMAGINATION!)

**"Good kid." **He said while looking at his hand.** "Oh I'm so going to win"**

_"You said that last time too"_Naruto said, dead serious. "_And I recall winning that match, just like any other. I wonder what people would say if I told them the almighty Kyuubi isn't only a complete loser when it comes to card games, but also a sore loser."_

**"I'm a thousand year old demon, created to destroy everything and be feared everywhere. Not to play card games with my cub, who is by the way being called right now."**

"NARUTO!"

Then he ealized Sakura was yelling at him. He shrugged and opened his eyes to see a very angry Sakura and 3 curious friends looking at him. "What's wrong Sakura-chan?"

"I was talking to you!" She said with a more controlled voice. "And you just ignored me."

"Ah, sorry Sakura-chan. I was ... thinking! Yeah, thinking!"

"Ano... Where were you thinking about?" Hinata asked while trying her hardest not to stutter.

"Uhh.. I was thinking about... Uhh.. You?" Naruto quickly replied.

He didn't even notice it when she fainted, because he heard a voice in his head cheer: **"I win!"**

"You thousand year old cheater." He muttered under his breath while the conscious part of the group watched him in share confusion.

But they would never know what really happened in that head of his. (or rather his stomach)

**It would remain a secret because Naruto wouldn't miss those moments for the world.**

-0-

This is, in a way, a repost of a 2009 project that was never finished. Since I'm cleaning up my account right now, I decided to repost all my favorite secrets in one file, so that my favorites wouldn't be lost for the world. I hope you guys enjoy, nevertheless. ITS will be continued, however, not now.


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